A HOUSEWIFE from Orkney is filling
Belgian chocolates with cannabis and sending them to Multiple Sclerosis
sufferers around the world.

Biz Ivol, 53, who suffers from MS
herself, grows her own supply of cannabis which she makes into a powder
and adds to the melted chocolate. She claims that her sweets help alleviate
the painful symptoms of MS.

Since embarking on her project Mrs
Ivol has had requests for her cannabis chocolates from Finland and the
United States. The demand has persuaded her to apply to Orkney Islands
Council for a business grant to buy a sweet-making machine and a triple-glazed
greenhouse to grow her cannabis plants.

However, Mrs Ivol’s application is
likely to run into opposition from critics who claim that the reportedly
relaxed approach of the islands’ police force to soft drug taking is making
it too easy for islanders to break the law.

There were complaints last year when
the procurator fiscal declined to pursue charges against a man from Shetland
accused of growing cannabis because a prosecution would not be in the public
interest.

Mrs Ivol, who was diagnosed as having
MS ten years ago, has already had one run in with the law. Four years ago
she was admonished for possessing a cannabis plant.

She acknowledges that in going public
with her activities she could now face criminal charges. In growing, using
and selling cannabis she is breaking the law. The MS sufferers who receive
the cannabis chocolates could also be charged with possession although,
in some cases, Mrs Ivol simply sends a copy of the recipe and the recipient
has to track down their own supply of cannabis.

Despite this she has carried on using
the drug, insisting that without it her illness would be far more difficult
to live with.

“If I stop, I notice the difference.
I get awful muscle spasms and the pain is horrific. You don’t just sit
there stoned talking rubbish. It’s not a big dose, not as much as you would
use in a joint.

“No one else is helping us, so we
have to help ourselves. Everyone has just kept what they are doing quiet
because it is illegal,” she told a Scottish newspaper. Mrs Ivol added that
the mix of cannabis in chocolate was a safer way to ingest the drug for
people who want to avoid the health risks of smoking. She said that high-quality
Belgian chocolate proved the best mixer because it has a low fat content
compared with other brands of chocolate.

The campaign for the legalisation
of cannabis for medicinal treatment is winning support from a growing number
of doctors in Britain. Mrs Ivol claims that the tacit approval of many
GPs has encouraged MS sufferers who would not normally consider breaking
the law to use cannabis.

The Government has licensed GW Pharmaceuticals
to carry out research into the efficacy of cannabis-based medicines to
alleviate pain but although the initial reports from clinical trials are
encouraging, no drugs will be available before 2003 at the earliest.

Mrs Ivol said: “There’s a hell of
a lot of difference between drug use and drug abuse. This isn’t drug abuse.
I just use it.”

A spokesman for Northern Constabulary
in Orkney declined to comment on an individual cse but said that officers
had an obligation to uphold the law as it stands.